The civil servant who has found herself at the center of the agency’s tea party-targeting scandal was placed on administrative leave Thursday. The move came a day after Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

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Lois Lerner pleads the fifth

How Obama admin is hurting itself

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member of the tax writing Finance Committee, said in a statement Thursday that Lerner was placed on administrative leave after she refused a request from Danny Werfel, the newly installed acting IRS commissioner, to resign.

“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign,” Grassley said. “She was then put on administrative leave instead. From all accounts so far, the IRS acting commissioner was on solid ground to ask for her resignation.”

The IRS and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Werfel named Ken Corbin to be the new acting director of exempt organizations in a statement released Thursday that did not mention Lerner. Corbin was previously a deputy director in the agency’s wage and investment division.

The shakeup suggests that Werfel is working to respond to the intense anger on Capitol Hill in the wake of the scandal. Lawmakers from both parties have called on Lerner to step down over the past week.

Since he officially took control of the IRS on Wednesday, Werfel has met with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the panel’s top Republican.

Lerner sparked the scandal on May 10 when she told a Washington legal conference that the IRS inappropriately scrutinized nonprofit groups if they had ties to organizations like the tea party.

A subsequent report from the IRS inspector general further stoked the political controversy.

Lerner struck a defiant tone at Wednesday’s House Oversight hearing before invoking the Fifth Amendment.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she told the committee. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee.”

Lerner will continue to be paid while on leave per civil service rules, according to a congressional source.

It’s difficult to fire a civil service employee because the termination can be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board — a process that can take over a year.